May 022014
Mt Ararat
We stayed the night in a very interesting hotel in the town of Sisian. This time I was a tad more prepared with shampoos et al, but it is sparse, none-the-less.
Today our first stop was Carahunge, This place is called Armenia’s Stonehenge, and I don’t think anyone really knows what it was, but it sits in a stunning area with views everywhere.
Some studies state that it was an acropolis from the middle bronze to the iron age. Apparently it made it to some documentary about alien visits, so needless to say the stories we made up were far better than anything we heard.
We then stopped at the Tatev Monastery. The Tatev Monastery now has a Swiss built tram called the Wings of Tatev to get you there, and they are using the money to restore the monastery. I must have taken hundreds of photos, it wasn’t that we hadn’t already seen our fair share of church buildings by now, but this one was truly spectacular, and it sits upon a huge hill so the views were rather magnificent as well.
The monastery site was originally a pagan site. The church that we saw dated from the 9thcentury and is said to hold relics from Saints Peter and Paul.
The first leg of the cable car ride
It was built by a king and queen after hearing from god that if they built it they would have a child. Apparently if you want to guarantee a son or a large family you get married here.
A monk, the hood means he is celibate
A natural bridge called “Devils Bridge”
Looking down from the tram
A flock of birds having lunch
Our lunch, packed by the hotel, was a boiled potato sandwich with a slice of cheese and pickled mushrooms. We had this sitting at a picnic table in Goris. This was my favorite stop of the day.
Looking down onto the caves from lunch
Just down the cliffs, and across a suspension bridge are caves. These caves were occupied until the 1960’s, apparently especially after WWII. There have been signs of habitation in Goris since the bronze age. In 401 BC, during the retreat of the Ten Thousand (Anabasis), Xenophon passed through Armenia. In his account of the expedition he mentions the Armenian troglodytes of Khndzoresk and Goris. A few of us hiked down to a church that was especially fabulous. It was abandoned and covered in graffiti, and yet someone had put a classic vessel for receiving candles, and had an honesty box and candles there.
The church from afar
The inside of the church
I had a few pictures left over from yesterday I wanted to share as well, as today wasn’t quite as long.
Nesting storks were everywhere in one of the valleys we went through
Everyone makes their own vodka and many places you can buy it on the side of the road in pepsi bottles, to disguise it from the Iranian Border patrol. This was a fellows still at a restaurant we stopped at.
This is a common site in many towns, the building is abandoned and yet the old lady continues to sweep the sidewalks.